LAKESIDE – Hundreds of Wildcat Canyon area residents crammed into the Lakeside VFW Hall yesterday, but those who were looking for answers to criticisms about parts of the firefighting effort in East County and why they weren't told to evacuate earlier didn't get them.

Instead, the forum was used to share information and to direct people toward the proper relief agencies. Though all speakers were met with applause, some residents interviewed said they were disappointed the meeting was so structured.

No one questioned the bravery and determination of firefighters who fought running battles with the consuming flames that devoured home after home. But there was concern about the lack of equipment and notice.

"We thought this meeting was sort of a grass-roots meeting of people coming together to make the authorities aware we had no notice," said Sandra Millers Younger, whose Wildcat Canyon Road home was lost in the blaze.

Fire officials, politicians and their representatives and other agencies made brief speeches. In the back of the room, tables were loaded with cookies and Halloween candy, coffee and apple juice.

Lakeside's interim fire chief, Paul Stein, spoke of firefighters' heroism and assured the standing-room-only crowd that firefighters worked to save residents and their homes.

"So when you ask why we weren't there at your house, and I feel so bad it breaks my heart . . . . I don't have an answer for that," Stein said. "They were doing their very best and they risked their lives a number of times."

But minutes later, some of the more than 500 people in the audience started yelling out questions. One woman briefly disrupted the meeting, demanding to know why fire officials told her husband it was safe to stay, when an hour later they barely escaped. She was led out of the meeting by a sheriff's deputy, her questions unanswered.

Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents East County, took questions from residents looking for help and vowed to help them get the services they need.

The five-mile area east of the Barona Casino and San Vicente Reservoir was among the most devastated by the Cedar fire. Of the 16 people killed by San Diego County fires last week, 12 died there.

Some residents interviewed said a system must be put in place so backcountry residents are better informed during an emergency.

"Everybody believes there would have been fewer deaths if there would have been a warning system," said Marcy Worthington, whose Eucalyptus Hills home survived.

Jill Ogilvie said her family escaped minutes before her home of 20 years was engulfed in flames. The family's house on Old Barona Road is gone along with five family pets. She wants a warning system, and more resources for firefighters.

"Somebody is not enabling our firefighters to have what they need to protect us," Ogilvie said. "As mad as everyone is at the fire department, we could have had a fire truck at every side of our house and they couldn't have done anything . . . . This fire was a demon."

Others weren't as convinced that something more couldn't have been done. Younger said she's angry she and her husband were told by the Barona Fire Department that it was safe to stay put. An hour later, the air was so full of smoke the couple could barely navigate their own driveway.

Tom Connerly said he didn't expect to get any answers yesterday.

"I was just hoping someone would stand up and yell at them, but what was good about (the meeting) was it dissipated some anger," said Connerly, who was one of the lucky ones and is back at his Wildcat Canyon home with his wife, Susan, despite the lack of water and electricity.

"Something needs to change so these people didn't die for no particular reason," Connerly said.